House Budget Vote Good News for Public Health, Environment

WASHINGTON (December 12, 2013) -- The House of Representatives today passed the bipartisan budget agreement that alleviates some of the indiscriminate domestic spending cuts that already have curbed the health and environmental protections Americans depend on.

Following is a statement by Scott Slesinger, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“This is good news for American households who need safe drinking water; kids whose asthma is aggravated by air pollution; and families, anglers, hunters and other recreational users of our national parks and public lands. The budget agreement is a first step in repairing the damage to environmental and natural resource agencies from recent rounds of indiscriminate spending cutbacks.  Now the spending committees need to make sure that enough money is directed to those programs, and government funding bills are free from rollbacks of environmental protections.”